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Keys to History

Bell and the Environment

Bell Canada has played a leadership role in environmental protection and corporate social responsibility. In 1990 Bell established an Environment Services team and drew up an environmental policy that is an integral part of its code of conduct. How can a big business like Bell help protect the environment and contribute to sustainable development? In business as at home, environmental protection starts with everyday habits. In the early 1990s, Bell Canada was one of the first companies to put boxes for paper recycling in its offices.

Over the years, various strategies have helped reduce resource consumption: using a satellite communications system for more efficient fleet management, collecting and recycling thousands of used cell phones, and teleconferencing and telecommuting to eliminate unnecessary travel and thus reduce air pollution and fuel consumption.

What

Paper and its by-products account for over a third of municipal waste in Canada.

Where

In 1991 a company-wide recycling campaign was launched. Some 18,000 employees in 25 Bell buildings received blue boxes for recycling paper.

When

In April 1989, the then Canadian Council of Resource and Environment Ministers (now the Canadian Council of Ministers of the Environment) agreed to a goal of 50 percent reduction in waste generation by the year 2000. This was the backdrop against which Bell Canada started up its recycling campaign in 1991.

Who

Since the early 1990s, major Canadian companies, including Bell, have been developing environmentally sound practices (pollution prevention, less-polluting production, energy efficiency, sustainable development).